MedWorm: Science

Clinicians should consider economic impact of new interventions, according to new report

ScienceDaily Headlines — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 06:11:33 +0100

Cancer clinicians should understand and consider the economic impact of new interventions, which often have substantial costs, according to a new report. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

MedWorm Sponsored Message: Find out how you can get your message across here by sponsoring this MedWorm news feed.

Insights into tissue only micromillimeters thick with help from new high-tech robot

ScienceDaily Headlines — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 06:11:33 +0100

"TIGA," the new high-tech imaging center at the University of Heidelberg provides deep insights: a high-tech robot makes it possible for the first time to automatically reproduce and evaluate tissue slices only micromillimeters thick -- an important aid for researchers in understanding cancer or in following in detail the effect of treatment on cells and tissue. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

Bringing stability to the protein defective in phenylketonuria

ScienceDaily Headlines — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 06:11:32 +0100

Phenylketonuria is an inherited disease characterized by progressive mental retardation and seizures because the individual is deficient in the protein PAH. Most of the genetic mutations that cause PKU do so because the PAH protein that is generated by the mutated gene is not stable enough to function. New data now suggest that it might be possible to stabilize the mutated PAH protein in individuals with PKU such that it can function normally. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

Volcanic activity shaped mercury after all

ScienceDaily Headlines — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 06:11:32 +0100

Planetary geologists have determined that volcanism played a central role in forming Mercury's surface. The evidence of volcanic activity, published in Science, lends important insights into Mercury's geologic history. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

Blood vessel inhibitor shows promise against metastatic thyroid cancer

ScienceDaily Headlines — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 06:11:32 +0100

Thyroid cancer that has spread to distant sites has a poor prognosis, but an experimental drug that inhibits tumor blood vessel formation can slow disease progression in some patients, according to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

Mining for molecules in the milky way

ScienceDaily Headlines — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 06:11:31 +0100

Scientists are prospecting in a rich molecular cloud in our Milky Way Galaxy. They seek to discover new, complex molecules in interstellar space that may be precursors to life. As molecules rotate and vibrate, they emit radio waves at specific frequencies. Each molecule has a unique pattern of such frequencies, called spectral lines, that constitutes a "fingerprint" identifying that molecule. Laboratory tests can determine the pattern of spectral lines that identifies a specific molecule. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

MedWorm Sponsored Message: Find out how you can get your message across here by sponsoring this MedWorm news feed.

Don't count on long-term success in climate policy, warns paper in decision analysis

ScienceDaily Headlines — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 06:11:31 +0100

Long-term climate change policy in the US and abroad is likely to change very slowly, warns a researcher who calls for stronger short-term goals to reduce carbon emissions. Although staging climate change policy decisions over time would seem to make sense, researchers point out that the tendency of U.S. and international policy to change extremely slowly requires front-loading the painful decisions. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

New technique produces genetically identical stem cells

ScienceDaily Headlines — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 06:11:30 +0100

Cells from mice created using genetically reprogrammed cells can be triggered via drug administration to enter an embryonic-stem-cell-like state without the need for further direct genetic manipulation. This technical advancement enables creation of large numbers of genetically identical cells that can be reprogrammed to an embryonic-stem-cell-like state simply by exposure to a drug. Researchers can exploit such cells to decipher and improve the reprogramming process. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

Endocrinology: understanding the genetics of congenital hyperinsulinism

ScienceDaily Headlines — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 06:11:30 +0100

A number of congenital disorders characterized by low blood sugar levels (hypoglycemia) as a result of excessive secretion of the hormone insulin are collectively known as congenital hyperinsulinism. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

Statins have unexpected effect on pool of powerful brain cells

ScienceDaily Headlines — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 06:11:30 +0100

Cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins have a profound effect on an elite group of cells known as glial progenitor cells that are important to brain health as we age, scientists have found. The new findings shed light on a long-debated potential role for statins in the area of dementia. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

Wild orangutans declining more sharply in sumatra and borneo than thought

ScienceDaily Headlines — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 06:11:29 +0100

Endangered wild orangutan populations are declining more sharply in Sumatra and Borneo than previously estimated, according to new findings. Although other threats to orangutan survival exist, such as hunting in agricultural areas where human-orangutan conflicts exist, the biggest by far is forest destruction associated with the burgeoning palm oil industry in Indonesia and Malaysia. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

MedWorm Sponsored Message: Find out how you can get your message across here by sponsoring this MedWorm news feed.

Woman aquires new accent after stroke

ScienceDaily Headlines — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 06:11:29 +0100

A woman in southern Ontario is one of the first cases in Canada of a rare neurological syndrome in which a person starts speaking with a different accent, researchers reported in the Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

Rare plants and endangered species such as tigers at risk from traditional medicine

ScienceDaily Headlines — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 06:11:29 +0100

Two reports from TRAFFIC, the world's largest wildlife trade monitoring network, on traditional medicine systems in Cambodia and Vietnam suggest that illegal wildlife trade, including entire tiger skeletons, and unsustainable harvesting is depleting the region's rich and varied biodiversity and putting the primary health care resource of millions at risk. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

Calpain inhibitors never forget: improving memory in alzheimer's disease mice

ScienceDaily Headlines — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 06:11:28 +0100

Overactivation of proteins known as calpains, which are involved in memory formation, has been linked to Alzheimer disease. Researchers have now shown that two different drugs that inhibit calpains can improve memory in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease, leading them to suggest drugs that target calpains might stop or slow down the memory loss that occurs as Alzheimer's disease progresses. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

Rocketing through water: space-age swimsuit being tested at nasa

ScienceDaily Headlines — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 06:11:28 +0100

Swimmers around the world are breaking records this year like never before, including at this week's U.S. Olympic trials. Some attribute it to extensive training as athletes prepare to compete at this summer's games in Beijing. Others say one factor may be a new swimsuit -- a space-age swimsuit made of fabric tested at NASA. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

Looking for the founatain of youth? cut your calories, research suggests

ScienceDaily Headlines — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 06:11:27 +0100

In addition to reducing one's risk for many common diseases, new research found that calorie restriction may slow the aging process. Calorie restriction has long been shown to slow the aging process in rats and mice. Calorie restriction - cutting approximately 300 to 500 calories per day - had a similar biological effect in humans, and, therefore, may slow the aging process. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

MedWorm Sponsored Message: Find out how you can get your message across here by sponsoring this MedWorm news feed.

Acidifying oceans add urgency to carbon dioxide cuts

ScienceDaily Headlines — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 05:05:01 +0100

It's not just about climate change anymore. Besides loading the atmosphere with heat-trapping greenhouse gases, human emissions of carbon dioxide have also begun to alter the chemistry of the ocean. The ecological and economic consequences are difficult to predict but possibly calamitous, warn a team of chemical oceanographers, and halting the changes already underway will likely require even steeper cuts in carbon emissions than those currently proposed to curb climate change. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

The bright side of the end of the world

TIME: Top Science and Health Stories — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 20:25:00 +0100

Covering the coming eco-apocalypse can be depressing business. But Rob Kutner sees the good times in end times (Source: TIME: Top Science and Health Stories)

Science: Current Issue — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 06:37:59 +0100

(Source: Science: Current Issue)

[research articles] phanerozoic trends in the global diversity of marine invertebrates[reports] self-sorted, aligned nanotube networks for thin-film transistors

Science: Current Issue — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 06:37:59 +0100

A compilation of more than 3 million specimens of fossil marine invertebrates shows that their diversity increased more in the Jurassic and less since then than an earlier study implied.Authors: John Alroy, Martin Aberhan, David J. Bottjer, Michael Foote, Franz T. Fürsich, Peter J. Harries, Austin J. W. Hendy, Steven M. Holland, Linda C. Ivany, Wolfgang Kiessling, Matthew A. Kosnik, Charles R. Marshall, Alistair J. McGowan, Arnold I. Miller, Thomas D. Olszewski, Mark E. Patzkowsky, Shanan E. Peters, Loïc Villier, Peter J. Wagner, Nicole Bonuso, Philip S. Borkow, Benjamin Brenneis, Matthew E. Clapham, Leigh M. Fall, Chad A. Ferguson, Victoria L. Hanson, Andrew Z. Krug, Karen M. Layou, Erin H. Leckey, Sabine Nürnberg, Catherine M. Powers, Jocelyn A. Sessa, Carl Simpson, Adam Tomašových, Christy C. Visaggi (Source: Science: Current Issue)

Depression ups risk of complications following heart attack, study suggests

ScienceDaily Headlines — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 06:11:59 +0100

People who suffer from severe depression following a heart attack might be more likely to experience cardiac complications while hospitalized, according to a new study. "There is good evidence that if a person has depression after a heart attack, they are more likely to die from cardiac causes in the following months and years," said the lead author and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. "No one had yet studied whether depression impacts cardiac outcomes immediately after a heart attack -- the time we see the most complications." (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

MedWorm Sponsored Message: Find out how you can get your message across here by sponsoring this MedWorm news feed.

Researchers coat titanium with polymer to improve integration of joint replacements

ScienceDaily Headlines — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 06:11:59 +0100

New research shows that coating a titanium implant with a new biologically inspired material enhances tissue healing, improves bone growth around the implant and strengthens the attachment and integration of the implant to the bone. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

Healthy or diseased? analysis of body's metabolism sheds new light on the question

ScienceDaily Headlines — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 06:11:59 +0100

Scientists have shown that biological indicators for diseases caused or influenced by environmental factors can be detected by the systemic analysis of the body's metabolism (metabolomics). The procedure presented here is also suitable for pre-clinical drug testing and allows for the early detection of possible side effects of a new medication. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

First underwater neutrino telescope has been constructed

ScienceDaily Headlines — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 06:11:58 +0100

Construction of the first underwater neutrino telescope has just been completed. Since early June, the last two detection lines of Antares have been probing the bottom of the Mediterranean for neutrinos of cosmic origin. There are now 12 detection lines aimed at observing these elementary particles, which provide insight into the most violent phenomena in the Universe. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

How cold sore virus hides during inactive phase

ScienceDaily Headlines — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 06:11:58 +0100

Now that scientists have figured out how the virus that causes cold sores hides out, they may have a way to wake it up and kill it. Cold sores, painful, unsightly blemishes around the mouth, have so far evaded a cure or even prevention. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

Breast cancer: how tumor cells break free and form metastases

ScienceDaily Headlines — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 06:11:58 +0100

When tumor cells acquire the capacity to move around and invade other tissues, there is a risk of metastases and cancer treatment becomes more difficult. Scientists have just discovered how breast cancer cells break the bonds that tether them to the tumor. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

MedWorm Sponsored Message: Find out how you can get your message across here by sponsoring this MedWorm news feed.

Weight watchers vs. fitness centers

ScienceDaily Headlines — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 06:11:58 +0100

The nationally known commercial weight loss program, Weight Watchers, was compared to gym membership programs to find out which method wins in the game of good health. Researchers examined the real-life experiences of participants to determine which program helps people lose pounds, reduce body fat and gain health benefits. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

Researchers use supercomputer to track pathways in myoglobin

ScienceDaily Headlines — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 06:11:58 +0100

Myoglobin is responsible for oxygen storage in cells. But how does oxygen travel through the solid protein wall to be anchored by an iron atom deep within the protein? Scientists have now provided a computational solution to the decades-old puzzle. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

Coronary arterial calcium scans help detect overall death risk in the elderly

ScienceDaily Headlines — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 06:11:57 +0100

Measuring calcium deposits in the heart's arteries can help predict overall death risk in American adults, even when they are elderly, according to a new study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

Puzzle in the control of cell division unraveled

ScienceDaily Headlines — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 06:11:57 +0100

A puzzle in the control of cell division, one of the most fundamental processes in all biology, has been unraveled. Although the steps of cell division are familiar to all pupils studying biology in schools, the details of how cell division is controlled and errors avoided have still to be sorted out. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

Seizures in newborns can be detected with small, portable brain activity monitors

ScienceDaily Headlines — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 06:11:57 +0100

Compact, bedside brain-activity monitors detected most seizures in at-risk infants. That means the compact units could assist clinicians in monitoring for electrical seizures until confirmation with conventional EEG, the researchers assert in an article in Pediatrics. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

MedWorm Sponsored Message: Find out how you can get your message across here by sponsoring this MedWorm news feed.

Music went with cave art in prehistoric caves

ScienceDaily Headlines — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 06:11:56 +0100

Thousands of years later, we can view stone-age art on cave walls, but we can't listen to the stone-age music that would have accompanied many of the pictures. Researchers report that the most acoustically resonant place in a cave -- where sounds linger or reverberate the most -- was also often the place where the pictures were densest. In many sites, flutes made of bone are to be found nearby. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

Scientists set out to measure how we perceive naturalness

ScienceDaily Headlines — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 06:11:56 +0100

Scientists at the National Physical Laboratory are working towards producing the world's first model that will predict how we perceive naturalness. The results could help make synthetic products so good that they are interpreted by our senses as being fully equivalent to the "real thing," but with the benefits of reduced environmental impact and increased durability. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

Undergraduates forge new area of bioinformatics

ScienceDaily Headlines — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 06:11:56 +0100

A group of undergraduate students have forged a new area of bioinformatics that may improve genomic and proteomic annotations and unlock a collection of stubborn biological mysteries. Their work will be published in the journal Genome Research. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

Women over 90 more likely to have dementia than men

ScienceDaily Headlines — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 06:11:56 +0100

Women over 90 are significantly more likely to have dementia than men of the same age, according UC Irvine researchers involved with the 90+ Study, one of the nation's largest studies of dementia and other health factors in the fastest-growing age demographic. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

Mercury's surface dominated by volcanism and iron-deficiency

ScienceDaily Headlines — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 06:11:56 +0100

Multispectral data on the composition of rock untis of the surface of Mercury show a widespread role for volcanism and an apparent deficiency in iron in the rocks' minerals. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

MedWorm Sponsored Message: Find out how you can get your message across here by sponsoring this MedWorm news feed.

Bone marrow alternative: stem cells from umbilical cord may be used to treat hepatic diseases

ScienceDaily Headlines — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 06:11:55 +0100

Researchers from the Universities of Granada and León have shown that mononuclear blood cells from human umbilical cord can be an effective alternative to bone marrow. This work, to be published in the journal Cell Transplantation, could potentially mean a great advance in regenerative hepatic medicine. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

Agriculture linked to frog sexual abnormalities

ScienceDaily Headlines — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 05:05:01 +0100

A farm irrigation canal would seem a healthier place for toads than a ditch by a supermarket parking lot. But scientists have found the opposite is true. In a study with wide implications for a longstanding debate over whether agricultural chemicals pose a threat to amphibians, zoologists have found that toads in suburban areas are less likely to suffer from reproductive system abnormalities than toads near farms -- where some individual animals had both testes and ovaries. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

Patriotic new lilacs introduced in u.s.

ScienceDaily Headlines — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0100

The word evokes memories of promising spring days and visions of colorful, perfumed blooms. Lilacs have long been well-loved staples in America's yards and gardens, and have played a storied role in US history. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

Bad science: plagues of wasps, squirrels, rats? let's see the data

Guardian Unlimited Science — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 23:22:29 +0100

Ben Goldacre finds out the truth behind the so-called 'top secret' data - collected by PR agencies (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)

Generating a biological oscillator

This Week in Science — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 07:13:41 +0100

The components of many of the biochemical circuits that regulate biological functions have been described, and investigators are now able to explore how the components work together and why regulatory … [Read more] (Source: This Week in Science)

MedWorm Sponsored Message: Find out how you can get your message across here by sponsoring this MedWorm news feed.

Cation close-up

This Week in Science — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 07:13:41 +0100

Because layered, double-hydroxide materials incorporate mobile anions in a cationic lattice framework (usually of bound Mg2+ and Al3+), they are of interest for catalytic and geochemical processes that rely on … [Read more] (Source: This Week in Science)

Inhibition, timing, and cortical computation

This Week in Science — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 07:13:41 +0100

In the CA1 region of the hippocampus, relatively uniform pyramidal cells coexist with a very heterogeneous group of GABAergic inhibitory interneurons. It remains unclear why there is such a highly … [Read more] (Source: This Week in Science)

Myosins under tension

This Week in Science — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 07:13:41 +0100

Myosin I is a single-headed myosin molecule that plays a role in regulating membrane dynamics and structure in eukaryotic cells. Its best-characterized function is to provide tension to sensitize mechano-sensitive … [Read more] (Source: This Week in Science)

Rat run

This Week in Science — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 07:13:41 +0100

There is a long-standing view that the functions of the dorsal and ventral hippocampus can be dissociated with respect to spatial information processing, with the dorsal hippocampus specialized for processing … [Read more] (Source: This Week in Science)

Autophagy from egg to embryo

This Week in Science — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 07:13:41 +0100

Autophagy is an intracellular bulk degradation system that is critical as a self-nourishment system in the neonatal starvation period. Atg5 is a gene critical for autophagy, and knockout mice appear … [Read more] (Source: This Week in Science)

MedWorm Sponsored Message: Find out how you can get your message across here by sponsoring this MedWorm news feed.

Spreading the word

This Week in Science — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 07:13:41 +0100

Individual dendritic spines, the receiving ends of synapses, compartmentalize small diffusible molecules. In particular, Ca2+ signals in spines are synapse-specific. However, synapses interact in subtle ways through diffusible postsynaptic factors, … [Read more] (Source: This Week in Science)

A mechanism for sudden infant death syndrome?

This Week in Science — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 07:13:41 +0100

Deficits in serotonin neurotransmission have been hypothesized to be involved in sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), the leading cause of death during the first year of life. Audero et al. … [Read more] (Source: This Week in Science)

Toward the tree of life

This Week in Science — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 07:13:41 +0100

By quantifying the distribution of phylogenetically informative data across the entire eukaryotes, Sanderson (p. 121) has tackled the problem of reconstructing the complete tree of life. The available data are … [Read more] (Source: This Week in Science)

Water and ice

This Week in Science — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 07:13:41 +0100

Water derived from melting on the surface can be transferred quickly to the base of an ice sheet, lubricating the ice-ground interface and facilitating movement of the ice sheet. How … [Read more] (Source: This Week in Science)